The allelopathic effect of para-hydroxybenzoic acid on the gene expression of photosynthesis and respiration in Solanum lycopersicum
Guoting Liang, Yajie Niu
Abstract
As an important economically and nutritionally valuable vegetable, tomato has been planted everywhere worldwide, which has resulted in a succession cropping obstacle due to the shortage of farmland. The effects of plant allelopathy, one of the major obstacles to succession cropping, has not been fully defined or explored, especially on plant gene expression profile changes. In this study, the high-throughput sequencing technology was used to analysis the gene expression in tomato leaves treated with the Para-hydroxybenzoic acid (PHBA), an important allelochemical, that was found to have the highest content in the soil of succession cropped tomatoes. We found the expression of genes related to respiration, photosynthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism, amino acid metabolism, pyrimidine metabolism, and ROS metabolism was changed in response to PHBA treatment. Our study on the allelopathic effects of PHBA on photosynthesis and respiration in Solanum lycopersicum has provided a solid evidence for the negative effect of allelochemical on the transcriptomic profiles needed for normal physiological activities of succession cropped tomato, thus will be beneficial for improving our knowledge of the mechanism of plant allelopathy.